A Basic AutoGreet Package Purpose: This text file is designed to equip you with a basic understanding of the AutoGreet function in mIRC, and provide some examples of how to implement the feature for online use. ________________________________________________ Definitions: Channel Greet: a personalized greeting on screen to a person who joins a channel. (These include messages to a user who has just joined or left the channel.) Semiautomatic Greet: a channel greet that requires manual activation by either an alias or a popup. AutoGreet: a channel greet that "triggers" itself as soon as a user joins or leaves the channel ________________________________________________ Forms of Channel Greets: There are three forms of channel greets: 1) one or more lines sent directly to the channel window designed for everyone on the channel to see. 2) a special "message" window opened for the person just joining or leaving the channel. 3) a "notice" to the active window of the person just joining the channel. Note: Re: #1 - When a half dozen people on a channel are using auto greets that print in the channel window, and someone joins the channel, the auto greets cause an immediate minimum 6 line scroll. If the greets are more than one line, the scroll can be quite long, and therefore annoying... and this will happen every time someone joins the channel! Add to this the natural tendency of people to manually type a greeting, even if an automatic greet is at work, and you have considerable channel clutter. (PLEASE TURN AUTO GREETS TO THE CHANNEL WINDOW OFF WHEN JOINING #50+RETIRED!) Re: #2 - It is EXTREMELY aggravating to join a channel and suddenly find a half dozen or more "msg" windows that "magically" open themselves up as the result of autogreets. Unless you have specific permission to run an autogreet with a "msg" window, it is poor practice to do so... the mark of a real "beginner." Re: #3 - "Notice" greets are the preferred form of greeting since they appear ONLY to the window of the user just joining, and do not require that user to close a greet window separately if he/she has configured mIRC to show notices in the active window. Everything that can be done in any other form of autogreet window can be done also in a notice window, without adding clutter to the channel or creating extra work for a person just joining or leaving the channel. On #50+retired, PLEASE MAKE ALL CHANNEL GREETS (automatic or otherwise) "NOTICE" TYPE GREETS! Note also: Re: #1,2,3 - Many channels do not welcome AutoGreets, especially those left on by "visitors" who designed their autogreets for a completely different channel. No channel likes AutoGreets when they cause rapid and unnecessary channel scroll. IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO PROVIDE A MEANS OF TURNING AUTOGREETS OFF when they are not needed. You can do this by means of the #groupname switch in mIRC (see the mIRC help file). Autogreets provided or modelled here all come with matching #groupnames and "popups" to allow you to turn the greets on and off as may be necessary or requested. PLEASE USE THEM! __________________________________________________ A Basic MANUAL Greet (alias) Someone joins the channel and you want to send them a personalized message... this alias is not fast but allows you to specify a new greeting for each person. Note: you must first highlight the new nick in the list in the right of the channel window. Paste this line into the alias section: _____Paste below here _______________ /greet /notice $1 $$?="Type your greeting" _____Do not paste this line _____________ Use: When someone joins the channel, type "/greet " (no quotes, of course) at the beginning of a new line, and in the box that appears, type the greeting you wish that person to see. This form of greet does not need to be turned on and off since it only operates when manually invoked and filled in. You may also shorten the "name" of this greet to "/gr" or even "/g" if you do not want to type the whole word for each person who joins. __________________________________________ A Basic SEMI-AUTOMATIC Greet Suppose you want to send a *standard* greeting to each person you know who joins the channel. This greeting is invoked in a similar way to the one above, except that it does not require you to fill in the words of greeting each time. It greets the new arrival by name and delivers your greeting to his/her window only. (Be sure to highlight the desired nick in the nicknames list on the right side of the channel window.) Paste this line into the alias section: _____Paste below here _______________ /greet //notice $1 It's sure good to see you again, $nick $+! _____Do not paste this line _________ Use: When a new person checks into the channel, highlight his or her nick, then type /greet on a line by itself. That's all there is to it. Note: 1) This system of greeting shows nothing if you do not manually type the nickname you wish to greet. The "realname" is optional and does not have to be entered. 2) You can add color to a greeting (though not in a notice) by using the double slash "//" which is interpreted by mIRC as a command. For example: /greet //ct Howdy, $1, it's great to see you again! 3) You can also make other custom color greets by editing the greeting in the aliases section using # in the usual way for mIRC (See webpage using color section), or you use any other color alias (such as those found in the scripts section of the #50+retired webpage). For example, you could use: /greet //notice $1 Hi, $1, have a tootsie roll and stay a while... | /notice $1 15,15.5,5.5,4.40,5TootsieRoll4,44,4.5,5.15,15.10,0 This would print the greet line with a color tootsie roll immediately under it, only in the greeted user's window. All of these greetings require you to manually type in the nick of the person you want to greet, and that nick must be correctly for the notice to arrive at its destination. But what if the nick is complicated or difficult? And what if you don't want to have to type a new nick every time someone joins the channel? ___________________________________________________ A SEMI-AUTOMATIC Greeting as a PopUp The greeting just above can be placed in the nicknames popup window to make it possible to respond more quickly when a new person joins the channel. Paste one or the other of the following lines into the Popups, Nicknames section: _____Paste below here _______________ AutoGreet:/notice $$1 //It's sure good to see you again, $$1 $+! ColorGreet:/ct It's sure good to see you again, $$1 $+! TootsieGreet:/notice $$1 Have a handful of 15,15.5,5.5,4.40,5TootsieRoll4,44,4.5,5.15,15.10,0's on $me and sit a while... _____ Do not paste this line _______________ Note: These lines must NOT WRAP in the nicknames section. Be sure to edit out any line wrap that appears, so that the entire autogreet is ONE LONG LINE. Notice also that the 3rd greet like the one above with the tootsie roll, but instead of calling the alias, it has the tootsie roll incorporated right into the popup line. (For a good starter collection of this kind of color popup greet, see also the scripts section of the #50+retired webpage: http://members.tripod.com/~Bubba_B/50plus.html Use: Highlight the new nick, RIGHT CLICK in the nicknames box and choose one of your new AutoGreets. ____________________________________________ Fully AUTOMATIC Greetings: These are the fastest form of AutoGreets, almost instananeous (depending on lag conditions), offer the greatest flexibility and variety and are therefore a little bit more complicated. IMPORTANT: AutoGreets should always be provided with a means of disabling themselves for times of heavy channel traffic or when you are visiting other channels. The varieties and forms of autogreets are almost limitless and certainly cannot be treated exhaustively in this BASIC intro. We suggest that you visit the mIRC homepage (http://www.mirc.co.uk) and investigate some of the excellent links to other mIRC sites from there. Below you will find some representative starter greets that will introduce to some of the various techniques available, and give you something to experiment with. We hope you find them enjoyable and instructive. IMPORTANT: Automatic greetings use the Remote, Events section, therefore Your remote section must be turned on for this to work. Click the "remote scripts" icon (9th from the left) then click on "Listen" and make certain that *at least* the "Events" item is checked. _____ Paste the following lines into the Remote, Events section ___ #autogreet off ON !1:JOIN:#50+retired:/notice $nick Hi, $nick, good to see you again! #autogreet end _____ Do not paste this line ________________ _____ Paste the following into the Channels, Popups section ___ AutoGreet Switch .On:/enable #autogreet .Off:/disable #autogreet _____ Do not paste this line _______________ Note: The autogreet consists of at least 3 lines... two for control and one for the greet itself. Be sure to paste all three so that you can easily turn the autogreets on and off. (They start in the off setting, so be sure also to paste the popup controls.) The "!" before the "1" is important: it keeps the greet from greeting you when you join a channel! The # is optional, you can use just # without a specific name and the greet will be active in all channels. But adding the name offers a good control feature: It makes the greeting functional for one channel only. This keeps you from having to turn it off when you move around, but also allows you to log onto several channels at one time, and not have to turn off all greets. It also makes it possible to use different greets for each channel you are logged onto. You can add color or invoke other aliases as in the examples above. For example: Example 1: To place a greeting in a rainbow colored box you would use: ON !1:JOIN:#50+retired:/notice $nick 12345678910111213141512 Howdy, $nick 151413121110987654321 Example 2: To use the tootsie roll greet from the popup above you would use: ON !1:JOIN:#50+retired:/notice $nick Have a handful of 15,15.5,5.5,4.40,5TootsieRoll4,44,4.5,5.15,15.10,0's from $me and sit a while... The greeting line can be further expanded for a myriad of possibilities beyond the scope of this document. You can also limit your greetings to only certain persons by assigning a level number other than one (1) to the greet, and putting the desired persons into the "users" section under that number. For example, all your old war buddies could be placed in user level 45 and a special greet designed for just them; other autogreets would continue to work for other levels (see mIRC help file for details). ______________________________________________ AutoGreets for Those Leaving the Channel: These AutoGreets are similar to the "JOIN" statements above in that they are placed in the "Events" section, but instead of "JOIN" they trigger on "PART," that is when the user leaves the channel. The line used in the "Events" section would read: ON !1:PART:#50+retired:/msg $nick The PART trigger occurs when a user logs off the channel from the command line, closes the channel window or uses a popup to quit the channel. Here the /msg command MUST be used because the PARTed person may not have an active window for a /notice to appear in. IMPORTANT: Parting greets are recommended ONLY for channel ops. They can be confusing to users new to IRC, and it is annoying to need to leave IRC in a hurry and suddenly have several additional windows that need closing just as you are quitting. In addition, it is guaranteed to annoy *YOU* when "drive-bys" (people who check in and right back out of the channel) get "messaged" and insist on replying or commenting again and again, which opens a /msg window on your screen every time they make a comment. If you are not flood protected, you can be flooded off the server through this window by a knowledgeable user bent on attack. Even if you close this /msg window, every time the "drive-by" makes another comment, it will reopen the /msg window on your screen... on top of everything else... even if you are in a different program! The only way to stop this annoying cycle of unwanted /msg windows from a stranger is to "/ignore" them using the "-p" switch or to change your nick. To exclude a user from receiving AutoGreets sent by you on JOIN or PART requires that you either: Create a special user level for autogreets and one by one add to the "Users" section those you wish to receive the AutoGreets - or - Assign the user you wish to exclude to a user level HIGHER than the AutoGreet level using the "+" sign before the level number. That user will then only trigger "Events" equal to or above the number assigned. +5:*!username@*.domain.nam would only trigger level 5 events and above; he/she would not trigger a level 1 "Event," for example. If you do not understand this principle, or do not feel confident in applying it, it's probably not a good idea for you to use AutoGreets based on PARTing the channel; for now just stick with JOIN greets. (See mIRC help section for more details.) ______________________________________________ One Last Word (or a few) about AutoGreets: AutoGreets are enjoyable for everyone when properly used. They can also be the bane of channel existence, and *could* get you summarily kicked and/or banned when improperly used. Be sure you know how to turn an autogreet on and off before you install it, and PLEASE remember that common courtesy to other users means: 1) Limit autogreets in the main channel window! Above all, do not make the beginners' mistake of auto-greeting yourself every time you join a channel. 2) DO NOT use autogreets that open "msg" windows (i.e., using the /msg command) 3) Turn autogreets off in a crowded channel (*BEFORE* SOMEONE HAS TO ASK YOU!!) Remember: Popup greets offer the greatest measure of control. 4) ALWAYS COMPLY WITH CONTROL OP REQUESTS TO TURN OFF AUTOGREETS. 5) Unless you are a control OP and have good reason to maintain the use of AutoGreets, it is common courtesy to honor reasonable requests from other users to be excluded from your AutoGreets. 6) To ignore autogreets from users employing /msg windows, use: /ignore -p [mask] To ignore /msg and /notice greets use: /ignore -pn [mask] The ignored users may still open DCC windows with you, but will not be able to send any other notice or query until you remove the ignore: /ignore -pn off| [mask]